tireless, broke down his body, like a sword
wearing out its scabbard. He poured out symphonies, operas, and sonatas
with such prodigality as to astonish us, even when recollecting how
fecund the musical mind has often been. Alike as artist and composer, he
never ceased his labors. Day after day and night after night he hardly
snatched an hour's rest. We can almost fancy he foreboded how short
his brilliant life was to be, and was impelled to crowd into its brief
compass its largest measure of results.

Yet he was always pursued by the spectre of want. Oftentimes his sick
wife could not obtain needed medicines. He made more money than most
musicians, yet was always impoverished. But it was his glory that he
was never impoverished by sensual indulgence, extravagance, and riotous
living, but by his lavish generosity to those who in many instances
needed help less than himself. Like many other men of genius and
sensibility, he could not say "no" to even the pretense of distress and
suffering.

III.

The culminating point of Mozart's artistic development was in 1786. The
"Marriage of Figaro" was the first of a series of masterpieces which
cannot be surpassed alike for musical greatness and their hold on
the lyric stage. The next year "Don Giovanni" saw the light, and was
produced at Prague. The overture of this opera was composed and scored
in less than six hours. The inhabitants of Prague greeted the work with
the wildest enthusiasm, for they seemed to understand Mozart better than
the Viennese.

During this period he made frequent concert tours to recruit his
fortunes, but with little financial success. Presents of watches,
snuff-boxes, and rings were common, but the returns were so small that
Mozart was frequently obliged to pawn his gifts to purchase a dinner and
lodging. What a comment on the period which adored genius, but allowed
it to starve! His audiences could be enthusiastic enough to carry him
to his hotel on their shoulders, but probably never thought that the
wherewithal of a hearty supper was a more seasonable homage. So our
musician struggled on through the closing years of his life with the
wolf constantly at his door, and an invalid wife whom he passionately
loved, yet must needs see suffer from the want of common necessaries. In
these modern days, when distinguished artists make princely fortunes
by the exercise of their musical gifts, it is not easy to believe that
Mozart, recognized as the greates